Out in the Greenhair Badlands, a five-colored beam of light was currently flying along. Behind it, the green wind looked like it was changing colors. The green wind was turning into a white wind! Inside the beam of light was a parrot who looked alarmed. As he flew along, he cursed up a storm.

What the hell? I was just fooling around by flying a bit more slowly! Okay, fine, I stopped to take a crap in a quicksand pit. How could I have known that would cause the wind to turn white?

The alarmed parrot flew on, using a few minor teleportations in an attempt to stay away from the white wind.

***

Meanwhile, Xu Qing appeared in the back room of the Green Spirit Pharmacy in the mudbrick city in the Bitter Life Mountains.

Sitting down cross-legged, he took out the painquelling lozenge and started studying it. The pill was multi-colored, making it look very strange. However, the curse aura in it was very prominent.

Xu Qing wasn’t going to act blindly. Painquelling lozenges were far too expensive, and he wasn’t in the position to buy a second one. All he had was this one single pill to study. He planned to start with simple observation. He studied the exterior of the pill. After smelling it, a thoughtful look appeared in his eyes.

It doesn’t seem like a pill made from medicinal plants. There’s definitely not just one type of curse. There are many…. The most important factor is the quality.

This thing is designed to absorb curse power. Each curse is used in a different amount. The pill formula basically uses the curse power from different species just like plants and vegetation.

Interesting. All of these curses have the same origin, but they have different effects. In the end, though, they’re all curses. As a result, consuming this pill will quell the pain of the curse, but it doesn’t reduce the curse. In fact, it adds more of it.

What’s more, adding in the power of other curses will cause side-effects like the loss of life force or reduction of cultivation base…. Drinking poison to quench one’s thirst…. That’s basically what this is.

Sighing inwardly, he waved his hand, causing violet moon power to converge in the form of violet streams.

There were several hundred, and as they swirled in front of him, he exercised a thought, sending them toward the painquelling lozenge. They pierced into the pill, with each stream focusing on one specific curse. This was something no one else could ever do. But because Xu Qing’s violet moon had the same origin as the red moon, then it could affect the same transformations.

Before, he had lacked an item to study directly, and also couldn’t do enough experimentation. But now he had a general understanding, as well as the painquelling lozenge. The door had been unlocked.

As time passed, Xu Qing’s expression grew more serious. He continuously sent violet strands out, transforming the different curses in different ways. He was exceedingly careful in everything he did. For one thing, he made sure that the fluctuations from the streams didn’t trigger the curse power in the medicinal pill.

About six hours later, after so much time spent being careful, he finally made a slight mistake.

The incredibly valuable painquelling lozenge trembled slightly, and then the curse power activated, and the pill collapsed, turning into black ash that slipped through Xu Qing’s finger and onto the floor.

He didn’t regret any of his actions, and in fact, his eyes were shining. During the six hours that had passed, he had thoroughly inspected over three hundred types of curse power from different species. Sighing softly, he looked down and brushed together all the black ash. As he did, he suddenly realized it looked familiar.

“What’s this…?”

Eyes glittering, he took out a bag and dumped the black ash out of it. The two types of ash looked exactly the same. The ash from the bag was what he had collected during his time doing research on the animals. When the curse power in them flared up, they would collapse into this ash. He had never found any use for the ash, but had collected it anyway. Apparently, that was the ingredient in the pill that absorbed the curse power.

In other words, each painquelling lozenge is made from the remains of a living being that died in an explosive curse flare-up.

Picking up a handful of ash, he sent several hundred streams of violet moon energy into it. Based on all the research he had done up to this point, he used them like curse power, which stuck to the ash.

During the process, the black ash shrank down, and its color changed. Soon, it was multi-colored. It also changed shape.

Xu Qing rolled it around between his hands, ultimately forming it into an oddly shaped medicinal pill. Although it didn’t look exactly like a painquelling lozenge, it had the same aura. That said, it was different substructurally. That was because the ‘curse power’ was actually formed from Xu Qing’s violet moon.

If you liken the red moon curse to an enemy army, then my violet moon power is like an enemy uniform that I can wear as a disguise. Using that method, I can infiltrate the enemy army. Once inside, if I take action with explosive speed, then I can cancel out some of the curse power before it has a chance to devour me.

Things were starting to click into place. With that, he took out a scorpion, which lay on the ground trembling, not even daring to raise its tail. Xu Qing glanced at it, then put down the new medicinal pill in front of it.

“Eat,” he said calmly.

The scorpion didn’t dare to resist, and meekly consumed the pill. A moment later, it shivered. Ten breaths of time passed, then the scorpion collapsed into black ash.

The ‘disguise’ didn’t work.

Frowning, Xu Qing reviewed everything, then started transforming more of the black ash.

Days sped by. Xu Qing tried many variations, but always failed. Every time, he would make adjustments. On the evening of the tenth day, he managed to successfully disguise his pill.

The animal that consumed it didn’t collapse, and the curse within it stabilized.

Heart racing, Xu Qing looked at the painquelling lozenge he had crafted. It was the result of about half a year of research and work. Because of the direction of his research, the pill was still not completely as effective as a real painquelling lozenge, but it was close.

Painquelling lozenges are designed to reduce the pain of the curse. But my research… is focused on completely eliminating the curse. The pain relief is just a side-effect. Although I haven’t completely succeeded yet, at least I’m going in the right direction. Also, I need to improve my violet moon power…. And I need to get more research information. The more I get, the more complete my understanding will be.

Eyes gleaming with anticipation, he prepared to create a few more of his special painquelling lozenges. But then his gaze hardened and he looked outside. He suddenly blurred, disappearing from the back room and appearing next to the counter in the shop.

Ling’er had been happily working on the accounts. When she sensed Xu Qing, she quickly transformed into a white snake and burrowed up into his sleeve. .𝒎

Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior suddenly pulsed with an aggressive aura. Meanwhile, Xu Qing’s expression softened slightly as he looked out the window.

He saw a five-colored light shooting through the city. It reached the medicine shop, entered, then came to a stop next to Sprouty.

Sprouty suddenly stopped swaying back and forth. Meanwhile, the light converged into the shape of a parrot. Looking around arrogantly, it said, “When the parrot debuts, the dad sucks balls; when I show up, call me pops, ya clowns!”

The parrot looked pompously at Xu Qing. “Hey. You, whatever your name is. That Chen what’s-his-name Er-something asked me to come tell you to light, uh, some kind of fire.”

“Light what fire?” Xu Qing said, frowning. He recognized the parrot, but had no idea what the parrot was talking about.

“How the hell would I know what fire he was talking about, fool? That Er-what’s-his-name just said to tell you to light the fire. Light it! Light, light, light that fire!”

Looking extremely arrogant, the parrot turned to Sprouty, took a big bite out of it, then slowly started chewing.

Sprouty shivered but didn’t dare to try to avoid the bite.

Meanwhile, Ling’er stuck her head out of Xu Qing’s sleeve and looked angrily at the parrot. “Hey, stop that!”

The parrot looked at her out of the corner of his eye, then looked arrogantly at Xu Qing. “I’m not stopping anything!”

Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior flew out, but before he could even get close to the parrot, the parrot vanished, then reappeared on the other side of Sprouty. He took another bite.

“I said I won’t stop!”

It was a level of speed that the patriarch found completely shocking. He was about to give chase, when the parrot started zipping around Sprouty, taking more bites.

“I won’t stop. Won’t stop. Won’t, won’t, won’t!” The parrot was looking very pleased with himself. But then he lurched to a stop. Eyes widening he coughed up a mouthful of blood. “I… ach… You’re full of poison!!”

The parrot glared at Sprouty, and the sapling shivered. Then the parrot coughed up more blood and started withering up. Around then, he realized that it wasn’t Sprouty that was poisoned. There was actually poison everywhere. He opened his beak to speak, but then toppled over onto the ground. He turned to Xu Qing, a look of terror on his face.

Meanwhile, Sprouty pulled its roots out of the soil, jumped down, and started trampling the parrot angrily.

The parrot moaned and groaned as he tried to get away. Unfortunately, he couldn’t. All he could do was roll around on the ground. Then Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior arrived, and the parrot didn’t do anything other than lay there, terrified.

Sprouty didn’t dare to keep causing a scene, and climbed back into the pot and settled down again.

At that point, Xu Qing calmly walked over and sat next to the struggling parrot.

“Are you ready to talk normally now?”

The parrot nodded his head. Now he finally understood why his father was so scared of this person. Instead of talking things out reasonably, he just went around poisoning people.

“Sect Uncle Xu, um, sir, how about you get rid of this poison…?” The parrot coughed up more blood, then struggled to breathe as his body continued decaying.

Xu Qing waved his hand, causing most of the poison to leave the parrot. The parrot twitched a few times, but then noticed Xu Qing staring at him, and quickly went still.

“Sorry about that, Sect Uncle Xu. So, Sect Uncle Erniu asked me to come tell you to light that fire. I really don’t know what he meant. I think it has something to do with some suns.”

Xu Qing thought about it briefly, then looked down at the parrot. The parrot really was incredibly fast, which he found surprising. “What powers do you have?”

“I can do minor teleportations. I’m the fastest of all my father’s children. And it doesn’t matter how bad the environment is, or what sealing magics are in place. They won’t affect me at all. In the past, whenever my father was in a really dangerous situation, I’m the one that teleported him away. I’m the best there is at… um, I mean, your humble servant is skilled at being fast.”

The parrot looked cautiously at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing nodded and was about to say something, when he quickly stood and went to the window. The wind was blowing into the city, causing buildings to vibrate and doors to slam. When it reached Xu Qing, it stirred his hair.

Off in the distance, the wind screamed, and sand blew about like clouds. Lightning flashed, and thunder boomed. It almost seemed like there was a god in the wind, driving it along with the sand. It was clearly a sandstorm. What was more, it was turning from green to white.

The screaming of the wind grew more intense. It sounded as if the dome of heaven was furious, and the lands were indignant, and that they wanted to bury all living beings for all time.

Terrifying pressure came along with the white sand storm. As it spread over the Bitter Life Mountains, everything outside turned a hazy white color. It looked very inauspicious.

Xu Qing looked down and realized his shadow wasn’t there. He’d sent it hunting, and it hadn’t returned….

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